San Diego Police Officer

A San Diego police officer was shot Thursday afternoon during what appears to have been a freeway chase with a wanted suspect, authorities said. Police Chief Bill Lansdowne went to the hospital where the officer was taken. He told reporters that the officer was conscious and talking. A suspect in the shooting is in custody, authorities said. The circumstances behind the car chase through the mid-city area are unclear. ALSO: Caltech names physicist as new president Bell's Spaccia was set to make an extra $8 million, expert testifies Lawyer: Woman spotted in stairwell five days before body was found Twitter: @LATsandiego tony.perry@latimes.com

WASHINGTON - Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's new champion of the 4th Amendment, is likely to play a crucial role Tuesday when the court hears this year's most important search case: whether the police may routinely examine the digital contents of a cellphone confiscated during an arrest. Civil libertarians say the stakes are high because arrests are so common - 13.1 million were made in 2010, according to the FBI - and smartphones hold so much private information. Under current law, officers may search a person under arrest, checking pockets and looking through a wallet or purse.

SAN DIEGO - A decorated police officer has been suspended while the district attorney reviews allegations that he sexually assaulted four women while on duty, officials said Thursday. The officer was identified as Chris Hays, 30, who received a lifesaving medal in 2012 for dashing into a burning building to save a woman trapped on the second floor. He also served with the Marines in Iraq as a lance corporal. Four women have accused the officer of touching them improperly while they were being searched, according to Chief Bill Lansdowne.

SAN DIEGO -- A lawyer for 25 strippers has filed a claim with City Hall asserting that police violated the strippers' rights by detaining them and forcing them to pose for pictures. Dan Gilleon, attorney for dancers at Cheetahs Gentlemen's Club, which bills itself as the city's top spot for nude entertainment, said the strippers' rights were violated by an estimated 10 officers who arrived at the club recently for what was said to be a routine inspection. The claim, filed Monday, is a forerunner to a lawsuit.

A San Diego police officer accused of killing his wife during a quarrel was ordered Monday to stand trial on a murder charge. Pablo Agrio, 29, was bound over for trial after a preliminary hearing conducted by San Diego Municipal Judge Frederic A. Link. Link commented that the case seemed more like a manslaughter than murder case. Alma Agrio, 23, a San Diego County Sheriff's Department trainee, was shot in the back of the head March 26 in the couple's Paradise Hills home.

Allen A. Stovall testified Thursday that he was unjustly fired as a San Diego police officer for an incident last year in which he said he and a fellow officer fought back against a drunken man whose wife was jumping on them and wildly screaming, "Get their guns! Shoot them!" "Given the circumstances, given the facts that we could have had an armed suspect and given the fact we had a violent crowd, I think the level of force we used was not only appropriate, but minimal," Stovall told the city's Civil Service Commission, which is considering his request for reinstatement.

The San Diego police officer who killed Tommie C. Dubose while serving a search warrant at Dubose's home March 12 has been involved in at least two other shootings, both while he was off duty and both after minor traffic disputes. Officer Carlos Garcia, who joined the Police Department 10 years ago, stood in his front yard in El Cajon and shot a man in the chest in 1979, moments after the man followed Garcia home.

A San Diego police sergeant who faced possible firing for his alleged mishandling of a sensitive police sting resigned Monday. Sgt. Thomas DeChandt, 43, told his attorney that he was no longer interested in staying with the department where he had spent 17 years. "He said, 'Even if I win this case, I don't want to go back,' " said Everett Bobbitt, his attorney. "Why fight to get a job you don't want?"

Morning after morning, Henry Hubbard Jr. sat among dozens of San Diego police officers at regular briefings, taking in details of police beach stakeouts in areas where several young men had been robbed and young women raped. At one briefing in July, shortly after two teen-age girls were raped, detectives described the suspect as tall, thin and black. According to one officer who was there, a sergeant turned to Hubbard and smiled.

Police Chief Bob Burgreen has detached the second-ranking officer in his department to determine whether any police officers were involved in the mysterious and brutal slaying five years ago of Donna Gentile, a prostitute and police whistle-blower. In an unprecedented move, Burgreen has assigned Assistant Chief Norm Stamper to review the Gentile murder case, which is being investigated along with 40 other killings by the joint city-county Metropolitan Homicide Task Force.

SAN DIEGO - A suspended San Diego police officer was arrested Sunday on suspicion of sexual battery and false imprisonment of women while on duty. Christopher Hays, 30, decorated for bravery in 2012, was arrested at 1:30 p.m. after voluntarily surrendering. He was booked into county jail on suspicion of three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and two felony counts of false imprisonment with violence, according to jail records. The arrest was announced by Chief Bill Lansdowne.

SAN DIEGO - A decorated police officer has been suspended while the district attorney reviews allegations that he sexually assaulted four women while on duty, officials said Thursday. The officer was identified as Chris Hays, 30, who received a lifesaving medal in 2012 for dashing into a burning building to save a woman trapped on the second floor. He also served with the Marines in Iraq as a lance corporal. Four women have accused the officer of touching them improperly while they were being searched, according to Chief Bill Lansdowne.

SAN DIEGO -- The driver of a stolen truck trying to evade arrest was shot by a San Diego police officer and a Border Patrol agent after ramming three vehicles with the truck, police said. The driver suffered a gunshot wound to his leg and was taken to a local hospital. The officer and agent were not hurt. The shooting, which occurred Thursday night, shut down traffic at the border for hours. The incident began about 6:30 p.m. when police were alerted about a stolen 2007 Chevy pickup heading south on Interstate 15. The driver, at speeds approaching 100 mph, tried to outrun police, driving on I-15, several surface streets, and then Interstate 5, police said.

A 31-year-old convicted felon is in San Diego County jail on suspicion of shooting a San Diego police officer Thursday while attempting to avoid arrest, according to jail records. Ignacio Canela is being held on multiple charges of possession of drugs, possession of burglary tools, being a felon with a firearm, evading arrest and attempted murder. There is no bail listed. Canela is suspected of shooting the officer in an attempt to keep from being arrested on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon.

A San Diego police officer was shot Thursday afternoon during what appears to have been a freeway chase with a wanted suspect, authorities said. Police Chief Bill Lansdowne went to the hospital where the officer was taken. He told reporters that the officer was conscious and talking. A suspect in the shooting is in custody, authorities said. The circumstances behind the car chase through the mid-city area are unclear. ALSO: Caltech names physicist as new president Bell's Spaccia was set to make an extra $8 million, expert testifies Lawyer: Woman spotted in stairwell five days before body was found Twitter: @LATsandiego tony.perry@latimes.com

Rocked by a string of officer-misconduct cases, the San Diego Police Department is trying to prevent future problems by helping officers cope with stress akin to that of combat veterans, as well as with problems linked to a sour economy, police officials said Wednesday. Police Chief Bill Lansdowne told a City Council committee that many officers and their family members have sought help through a new confidential help line and a wellness program modeled after a program used by the Denver Police Department.

WASHINGTON - Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's new champion of the 4th Amendment, is likely to play a crucial role Tuesday when the court hears this year's most important search case: whether the police may routinely examine the digital contents of a cellphone confiscated during an arrest. Civil libertarians say the stakes are high because arrests are so common - 13.1 million were made in 2010, according to the FBI - and smartphones hold so much private information. Under current law, officers may search a person under arrest, checking pockets and looking through a wallet or purse.

Reporting from San Diego Jeremy Henwood, who survived three combat tours as a Marine but was mortally wounded during a routine patrol as a San Diego police officer, was remembered Friday as a "true warrior who stood in harm's way. " Police Capt. Lawrence McKinney, commander of the mid-city division where Henwood served, told 3,500 people assembled at the Rock Church that Henwood "went boldly into harm's way, knowing full well that he might not come back someday. " McKinney urged the crowd to remember Henwood's courage and dedication to public service as a Marine and a police officer, rather than "the cowardly act of one lost soul," a reference to Dejon Marquee White, 23, Henwood's assailant.

A San Diego police officer facing hit-and-run and drunk driving charges was found dead in the backyard of his home Monday morning, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. David Hall, 41, was discovered slumped against the rear wall of his home in the Clairemont Mesa neighborhood of San Diego. His wife called police shortly after the 10 a.m. shooting. Hall, a motorcycle officer, was off duty in February when he allegedly struck another car on a freeway onramp, injuring a female passenger, and fled the scene.